Indexed book



M. LIGHTER INDEXED BOOK Nov. 25, 1941.

Filed Aug. 13, 1940 INVENTOR KEEP THIS TAB UNDER YOUR PHONE ZIGDEXATTORNEYS Patented Nov. 25, 1941 INDEXED BOOK Malw'n Lichter, New York,N. Y., assignor to The Stickless Corporation, New York, N. Y., acorporation of New York 5 Claims.

side and which may be indexed in a convenient accessible manner.

My novel form of booklet may be conveniently employed for listingtelephone numbers or addresses and has considerable application in homesand ofiices. As the booklet itself is particularly adapted for use witha telephone, it is evident that it will be constantly in view of theperson at. the desk or at the telephon and thus it finds application asa souvenir or novelty upon which advertising or other descriptive mattermay be printed.

Heretofore in the fabrication of small indexed note books, for telephoneor address listings, a series of pages were bound together and thecorners thereof were indexed alphabetically or numerically. The bindingoften consisted of a series of metal loops or spirals or metal staplesor the like and reinforced stiffened covers were obtained by employingplastic or fibrous materials suitably fashioned in order that they mightbe bound to the individual pages.

Th indexing of the pages of most of the booklets heretofore manufacturedwas obtained by suitably notching or cutting away sections of the pagein order to provide integrally formed tabs upon which the index ngfigures were printed. As all of these indexing methods and bindingmethods involved a relatively large number of manufacturing operations,the final product was comparatively expensive and thus free distributionof these articles for home and office use by an organization interestedin distributing advertising matter was prohibitive.

I have discovered that I may fabricate a booklet which may bealphabetically or otherwise indexed and is particularly adaptable fortelephone use and which may be inexpensively manufactured with arelatively small number of manufacturing operations.

The pages of my booklet are fabricated from a single sheet of materialsuitably scored and folded. Essentially, a trapezoidal sheet of materialis scored at equal distances, the scoring lines running parallel to theparallel bases of the trapezoidal sheet. At adjacent scoring lines thematerial is folded in opposite directions thus probooklet and thusprovides accommodations for indexing numerals orletters. a v

The first and last pages are reinforced or stiffened to complete thebooklet and advertising material may be printed upon the front cover orupon a portion of each page.

It is therefore an object of my invention .to provide for an indexedbooklet in which the pages and the indexing means may be fabricated froma single sheet of material.

Another object of my invention isto'provide for an index suitable forhome-or ofiice telephone or address listing in which the pages may beopened from either side of the. booklet and in which each of the pagesmay be suitably indexed.

Still another object of my invention is to provide for an indexedbooklet which may be formed from a single trapezoidal sheet of materialin which the index numerals or other index figures appear along thetapering edge of the trapezoidal figure.

A further object of my invention is to provide for an indexed booklet inwhich the pages. are formed from a single sheet of material and in whichthe cover is integrally formed from the same sheet of material. r V jThese and other objects of my invention will become apparent from thefollowing specification taken in connection with the accompanyingdrawing in which:

Figure 1 is a plan view of my novel and zig-zag indexing means.

Figure'2 is a perspective view of my indexed booklet showing the mannerin which the booklet is used.

Figure 3 is a plan view of a sheetof material indicating th manner inwhich this sheet is out and scored in order to provide for the pages ofthe booklet.

Figure 4 is a plan View of a modified form of scoring and cutting planproviding means for integrally forming a reinforced cover for the novelzig-zag index. a

Figure 5 is an end view of the trapezoidal sheet employed for the pagesindicating the zig-zag manner in which this sheet is folded subsequentto scoring. 1 1

Referring now to Figure L'there is shown a plan view of my zig-zagbooklet and indexing means. The covers of the small booklet have beenmade of a relatively stiff material and have been fastened to the pagesto form the complete booklet.

The rear cover I! is a sheet of material made relatively larger than thepages of the booklet in order to provide the projecting tab l2 at the Vbooklet upper end of the booklet as viewed in Figure 1. The pages of thebooklet ar formed from sheet material such as paper or a thin grade ofcardboard which is inherently stiff enough to preclude excessive bendingof the pages when in use for reasons which will hereinafter be pointedout. The pages are formed in a single operation from a single sheet ofmaterial in a manner indicated more clearly in Figures 3 and 4.

Figure 3 indicate a rectangular sheet of material I3 and the solid linesrepresent lines along which the material is cut and the dashed linesrepresent the lines along which the'material is scored to facilitatebending or folding thereof.

In a single cutting and scoring die, the rectangular sheet I3 asindicated in Figure 3 is out along the line I4 and scored along theparallel lines I5 which are in turn parallel to the ends I6 of therectangular sheet I3. As a result of this single cutting and scoringoperation, two iden tical trapezoidal pieces of material are formed,these trapezoidal sheets having suitable fold lines. The fold lines I5are preferably equally spaced and as previously mentioned, parallel toeach other and therefore the individual trapezoids which are formedbetween adjacent fold lines are similar. in all respects except that thetrapezoids become progressively larger along the sheet in the dimensiontaken parallel to the fold lines.

To form the booklet, the trapezoid which has been cut and scored fromthe original rectangular sheet I3 is folded along the scored lines I5 sothat the material is bent in opposite directions at adjacent fold linesas indicated in the end view of the folded material Figure 5.

This zig-zag sheet of material is substantially flat when completelycompressed and the individual trapezoidal pages may be referred to byopening the zig-zag sheet employing any particular fold line as thehinge about which this opening is accomplished. Obviously, therefore,depending on the side of the booklet on which the foldline exists, thebooklet may be opened from either side.

The scoring process may be any of the well known paper weakening methodssuch as a cutscore, an indentation, perforation or the like but themethod of scoring employed must ensure reasonable strength at the hingeand reasonable durability, that is, the scoring must provide for afoldable junction between two adjacent trapezoids which will not tear orotherwise be deformed as a result of repeated use. If the materialemployed to form the pages is such that repeated use may result in anultimate fracture along the fold line,-it may be desirable to employ areinforcement at each fold line which may be in the form of a hinge ortape or other flexible and durable material.

The pages are confined between two covers to form the complete bookletas indicated in Figures 1 and 2, that is when the series of zig-zagpages are substantially flat, the two covers 2I and II are fastenedsecurely to the first and last pages respectively; Thus trapezoidalsections 22 and 23 which are the smallest and the largest sections ofthe series of trapezoids formed by scoring the large sheet of materialare fastened to the front cover 2I and the rear cover respectively. Thisfastening process of course may be by any of the well known meanspreferably by gluing inasmuch as the glue is a stiffening agent and aidsin maintaining the required rigidity of the front and rear covers.

Front cover 2| may be a rectangular sheet of material or may betrapezoidal to correspond exactly with the trapezoidal section 22 ofFigure 3 and is of material sufficiently strong and durable to provide asatisfactory cover for the booklet. It is evident that any advertisingor other printed material may be printed directly upon the outer face ofthe front cover 2 I.

If desired, of course, the cover 2| may be fastened to the zig-zagshaped series of pages by hinging it to the edge I6 of the series ofpages. This hinge may again comprise a durable flexible material adaptedto be secured to both members as, for instance, a length of fabric orpaper tape.

The rear cover I I as previously mentioned is a relatively large sheetof material, that is, it may be rectangular in form of a width equal tothe width of a. trapezoidal page but is large enough to provide theintegrally extended tab I2 which serves as a means for securing the padto the desk. A paper weight or in fact the base of the telephone withwhich the booklet is employed may be rested upon the extended tab I2.

The largest section 23 of the trapezoidal series of pages is fastened tothe rear cover II either by gluing the entire rear surface of trapezoid23 to the cover II or by hinging the edge I6 of trapezoid 23 to the edgeof the cover II by means of a flexible material.

The complete assemblies of the booklet are illustrated by Figures 1 and2. The plan view Figure 1, indicates the manner in which the pages andcover appear when the booklet is completely collapsed and Figure 2illustrates the booklet when opened along the fold lines on one side ofthe booklet. It may be seen that each page when opened in this manner,such as the page 25, consists in this embodiment of two trapezoidalsections 26 and 21 each of which is folded along fold lines betweenadjacent trapezoids. If the material of which the pages are formed isrelatively stiff and if the front cover is lifted as indicated in Figure2, then there will be no tendency for the two individual trapezoids 26and 21 to move apart in that they are being held together along the foldlines 25'.

If, on the other hand, the booklet were opened along the opposite edgeto any particular page, the fold line 25 would remain in position alongthe edge II of the rear cover and thus the booklet may be opened fromthe other side, making each surface of the trapezoidal pages availableto the user.

I have provided indexing means for my novel booklet withoutnecessarilyincreasing the number of operations required to manufacture the pages.The line I4 of Figure 3 which is the line along which the rectangularsheet of material I3 has been cut to provide the two trapezoidalsections is a line which is not parallel to either of the edges 3I ofthe rectangular sheet.

Thus when the individual trapezoidal sections are folded up as indicatedin Figure 3 and are placed in a substantially flat position as indicatedin Figures 1 and 2, a zig-zag line I4 corresponds to the original lineI4 along which the sheet material has been cut.

This zigzag line provides in effect a series of pages which growprogressively larger when taken from the front section 22 to the reartrapezoidal section 23 and thus I employ the change in dimension betweenadjacent pages to afford the indexing or cataloging means for my bookletand I do not have to perform additional operations on the paper whichusually entail a waste of material such as progressively notching pagesto provide an indexing means. The simplicity of the booklet constructionis evident and the additional simplicity in afi'ording indexing meanswill thus provide an article which is extremely inexpensive and may thusbe employed for souvenir articles to be distributed with advertisingmatter printed thereon.

In the embodiment in the accompanying figures, the pages have beenalphabetically indexed in a manner such that a person searchingthroughthe indexed booklet will start by raising the hard cover 2| along thefold line opposite that along which the first letters of the alphabet orthose letters of the alphabet desired are printed. Thus as illustratedin Figure 2, a person starting with the letter A will open the stiffenedcover 2| as shown to the pages lettered AB. By raising the compositepage having the letters AB as indicated, the page containing the lettersCD are brought into view. This procedure is followed as determined bythe number of pages in the index which of course is arbitrary untilapproximately half of the alphabet is covered.

This will bring the searcher to the end of the booklet. Immediately thenthe searcher may shift the line along which the pages are folded to theedge ll of the rear cover and thus the opposite surfaces of the pageswill be brought into view and the pages may be turned as previouslydescribed, except that the binding or effective binding has been shiftedto the opposite side of the booklet. The indexing is entirely arbitraryand may be assigned to the various pages as required by the specificapplication thereof.

As a further convenience for the person employing this booklet as anindex such as a telephone number index, I provide a visual means fordetermining the direction in which the booklet must be opened to arriveat a page containing the desired indexing letter or number. Thus asindicated by the lower portion of the zig-zag pages illustrated inFigures 1 and 2, I shade by distinctive color or other visual means theedges corresponding to one particular direction of opening and leave theother edges blank or shade them with another distinct color. Thus thefirst half of the alphabet as indicated in Figures 1 and 2 are printedupon the shaded portions of their corresponding pages while the secondhalf of the alphabet has been printed upon a blank lower edge.

As previously discussed, the exact number of pages is determinedentirely by the purpose of the index. The individual trapezoidal pagesmay be ruled as illustrated in Figure 2 or may be blank and may ifdesired, contain advertising matter along an upper or lower band of thepage.

If the booklet is employed as a telephone number index, the personsearching for a particular number will lift the edge containing theinitial of the name in question and will thus automatically arrive atthe page containing the name and telephone number in question.

To further facilitate manufacture of the article illustrated andtherefore to further reduce the cost of manufacture, I have provided amodified form of blank which may be out and scored to form the pages. Asindicated in Figure 3, a single rectangular blank of paper may beemployed to form the two series of pages that is the pages required fortwo of my novel zigzag booklets.

However, in this embodiment it was necessary to provide an individualseries of front and rear covers. In this modification illustrated inFigure 4, the rectangular blank 34 is out along the line 35 again toprovide two identical blanks of material. 'However, the line 35 is suchthat the two ends of the line 35' are parallel to the outer edges 36' ofthe rectangular blank while the inner section of the line 35 is at anangle thereto.

The lines 35' which are parallel to the end lines 36 may be of a lengthwhich corresponds with a plurality ofindividual page sections but asillustrated are not trapezoidal but are rec'- tangular. 7

Thus if after the blank 34 has been cut and scored the rectangularsections 37 are folded over each other and are glued along theoverlapping surfaces, a reinforced and stiffened member will be formedwhich may serve as a reinforced front cover which in Figures 1 and 2 isthe additional piece of relatively stiif material 2|.

The larger rectangular sections 38 may be employed when folded and gluedto each other to afford additional strength to the rear cover. However,this alfords no integral projection such as l2 in Figures 1 and 2 whichmay be employed to secure the booklet upon a desk by means of a weightwhile still allowing the booklet to be opened. However, if some wastematerial is no serious objection in the manufacture of these booklets, ablank may be formed which will correspond exactly with the developedbooklet indicated in Figures 1 and 2 including both front and rearcovers and may afford additional flaps of material which may be gluedafter folding to stiffen both front and rear covers.

The booklet described above and illustrated is but one modification ofmy novel indexing means. Many other modifications will be evident andother means may be employed by those skilled in the art for forming thepages and covers thereof; Therefore, I do not wish to be bound by thespecific disclosures hereinabove described and illustrated but only bythe appended claims.

I claim:

1. A booklet comprising a plurality of pages, each of said pages beingattached to its following page along an adjoining edge, said attachededges being oppositely disposed for adjacent pages throughout thebooklet; and means for stiffening the first and last of said pages, saidstiffening means forming front and rear enclosing covers for saidbooklet, and a tab, integral with said rear cover and extending beyondsaid front cover.

2. A booklet comprising a plurality of pages, each of said pages beingattached to its following page along an adjoining edge, said attachededges being oppositely disposed for adjacent pages throughout thebooklet; said pages each having a trapezoidal shape and progressivelyvarying in dimensions, the edges of the pages normal to the attachededges terminating along a single unbroken line for each series of edges,said dimensional variations providing integral extensions on each ofsaid pages.

3. A booklet comprising a plurality of pages, each of said pages beingattached to its following page along an adjoining edge, said attachededges being oppositely disposed for adjacent pages throughout thebooklet; said pages each having a trapezoidal shape and progressivelyvarying in dimensions, the edges of the pages normal to the attachededges terminating along a single unbroken line for each series of edges,said dimensional variations providing integral extensions on each ofsaid pages, all of said extensions being visible when said booklet isclosed.

4. A booklet comprising a plurality of pages, each of said pages beingattached to its following page along an adjoining edge, said attachededges being oppositely disposed for adjacent pages throughout thebooklet; said pages each having a trapezoidal shape and progressivelyvarying in dimensions, the edges of the pages normal to the attachededges terminating along a single unbroken line for each series of edges,

said dimensional variations providing integral extensions on each ofsaid pages, and indexing characters upon said extensions.

5. A booklet comprising a plurality of pages, each of said pages beingattached to its followin page along an adjoining edge, said attachededges being oppositely disposed for adjacent pages throughout thebooklet; said pages each having a trapezoidal shape and progressivelyvarying in dimensions, the edges of the pages normal to the attachededges terminating along a single unbroken line for each series of edges,said dimensional variations providing integral extensions on each ofsaid pages, indexing characters upon said extensions, and means forvisually characterizing extensions corresponding to pages opening from asingle side of said booklet.

MALVIN LIGHTER.

